Tag: England

G for Getting Older (turning 22)

lindamaycurry8 Comments

This is the story of Will and his two friends who sailed to England in 1967 to see the world. Aerogrammes. letters, diaries and postcards help to tell of their adventures in this A to Z.

#AtoZChallenge 2025 letter G 
“Birthday” Beatles 1968
They say it’s your birthday
It’s my birthday too, yeah
They say it’s your birthday
We’re gonna have a good time
I’m glad it’s your birthday
Happy birthday to you

52 Weltje Road, Hammersmith, London 6th April 1967

I had to meet a couple of girls (Michelle and Norma) from the Fairsea, at Victoria Station as they have just arrived from Europe and are staying here for a week.  It’s good to have some female cooked food for a change as somehow it tastes better. 

Meanwhile school was a bit hard to take after two and a half weeks Easter hols but we get a week’s holiday in eight weeks time (mid term) and besides, the kids are beginning to learn that  “What Mr Price says, goes”.

You asked about the flat and food. Well, it has worked very well in shifts for the cooking and there has been so much heckling, particularly if a crook meal is served, the meals have been reasonably good but the place gets a bit dirty now and then. Anyway the girls will probably clean it up this week as they won’t start teaching for a week or so and won’t get their flat immediately.

The hot meal at school is great. Today, for example, we had shepherds pie plus four vegs plus apple/blackberry crumble with custard for two shillings and fourpence.

Extract from Diary April 9th 1967

Birthday song for brekkie, coffee in bed.  Up for brunch.  Tube to Piccadilly Circus to show the girls London.

To Buckingham Palace, St James Park, Horse Guards, 10 Downing Street, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Bridge, River Thames, Pavement Artist, Scott’s Discovery, Strand, St Clement’s Church (chimes), Trafalgar Square.  Tube back to Hammer.  Dinner, coffee, talked, discussed news from Home.  Bed 12.30am

Captain Scott’s ship “The Discovery”

School tomorrow!  How depressing after 2 ½ week’s hols.

21st April, 1967

Hi!  Received your letter. This is just a card we bought in Stratford. Michelle, Norma and I hired a blue Austin Mini for three days and we had a “delightful” weekend getting behind the wheel again and touring.  Left London Friday night and stayed at a pub at Cambridge the first night.  The university is quite impressive.  Then to Bedford, Northampton and Coventry where we saw the walls and steeple of Coventry Cathedral, built 1300 and destroyed by bombing in 1941. Stayed with Michelle’s friends at Rugby and saw the field where the boy picked up the soccer ball, started to run and rugby began.  Stratford is really beautiful and they fancy “Old Bill” quite a bit.  Many, many old buildings and his statue and name are everywhere.  

Shakespeare’s Birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon Postcard John Hinds Studios Photo E. Ludwig

Extract from Diary Sunday, 23rd April

After 10 am breakfast 6 of us, Michelle, Norma, Keith, Phil, Ted and I caught the tube to Baker Street where we visited Mde Tussauds Waxworks.  Quite fascinating and very lifelike.  Australia was well represented in sports section with Brabham, Bradman, Marg Smith and Laver. Sir Robert (Menzies) was there.  Lady sitting on seat and train robbers reading newspapers. Battle of Trafalgar was quite realistic.

We thought it funny when Michelle asked a wax lady at the canteen did she sell chocolates.    Spent the rest of the day in Hyde Park at Speakers Corner watching the Yanks heckling anti-Vietnam speakers.  

I hear there’s a new pay rise for schoolies backdated to October (more brass for me).  Had a haircut.  First in four months. Food costs £2 a week.  Meat fairly expensive but I’ve put on over half a stone so am eating well.  Thank the club for singing Happy Birthday. Regards to all.  

Extract from Diary Sunday, 24th April

Flat was a hopeless mess.  Bods sleeping everywhere, clothes thick all over the floor.  Girls moved out to OVC (Overseas Visitors Centre). Met Fred at OVC and he moved in too. 9 for dinner!

52 Weltje Road, Hammersmith, London 26th April 1967

Hope the shock isn’t too great receiving a letter from me just after a card but I figured I’d better write a letter though yours and this one will probably pass in transit.  I had quite a good birthday.  The girls sang “Happy Birthday” and bought me a cake.  

Michelle and Will on his birthday

When the other blokes arrived back from Scotland they bought me a half pint of Bitters. Thanks for the $6.  I haven’t bought anything yet but will eventually have a splurge on clothes and will get myself a Harris Tweed coat for £5 and trousers are pretty cheap.  Sweaters look OK and are reasonably priced so will get one of these too.

Keith and Phil have bought a Morris 1000, 1961 van in good condition for £70 and are off to tour England, Scotland and Wales for two weeks and then to Europe as they are going to Canada for the start of the school year in September. Graeme and Neil have jobs in holiday camps so are moving as well, so Ted, a Canadian guy and Fred (went to college with him) have moved in and we’ll get a couple of others to share expenses.  The girls have got a flat but were cooking our meals for a few weeks before that. 

 Spent a good weekend checking out more of London.  Did a conducted tour of the Tower by Beefeaters, saw monument to the Great Fire, built 1671 and walked 311 steps to the top.  

View from the top of “The Monument” to the Great Fire of 1066. 311 steps high. Built by Wren 1671

Walked past Mansion House (Lord Mayor).  Bank of England, the Old Bailey and through St Paul’s Cathedral and down Fleet Street. Also had a ferry trip down the Thames. 

I’ve decided to stay teaching in London until end of term at least.  The boss wants me to stay for any number of years after that but no chance.  However, I might tour Europe for only the five week hols (summer vacation) and get back to London for two terms til following May, then to Europe and then to Canada in the following August.  But I haven’t yet decided.  I’m going to play it by ear.

Cheers (as the Poms say) and Cor Blimey, it ain’t ‘alf time to go.

E for England Swings Like a Pendulum Do

lindamaycurry13 Comments

This is the story of Will and his two friends who sailed to England in 1967 to see the world. Aerogrammes. letters, diaries and postcards help to tell of their adventures in this A to Z.

#AtoZChallenge 2025 letter E 
"England Swings Like a Pendulum Do"   Roger Miller •  1965
England Swings Like a Pendulum Do
Bobbies on bicycles, two by two
Westminster Abbey, the Tower of Big Ben
The rosy-red cheeks of the little children

52 Weltje Rd, Hammersmith, London, England 30-3-67

I received your letter with the clippings, photos and it gives me nostalgic feelings to see those bleary-eyed people who obviously have been drinking real beer. Don’t waste a drop of it. 

We are only 50 yards from the Thames River, where there is a sailing club (Enterprises, Fireflys, OKs and 14s) but you have never seen a worse place to sail.  They started a race at 6.00 pm the other night (winter) just on the turn of the tide and half the fleet went A over Z in the freezing water within minutes.  I met an Aussie from Speers Point who knew the 16ft mob and sailed skates etc.  

First flat close to the Thames and the Hammersmith Bridge

The Oxford-Cambridge boat race went practically by our door and all the Poms get very excited about this.  I saw the race on TV in Monmouth, Wales as Jan (a schoolie from NZ) and I, Graeme (one of the blokes in our flat) and Raewyn (schoolie from NZ too) hitched for a five day tour which started on Good Friday and took us about 500 miles through Oxford, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Monmouth, Swansea and Cardiff (capital of Wales), across the Severn Suspension Bridge (4th largest bridge in the world) and back to London. 

We stayed in Youth Hostels which are very good and cheap and one night in a little pub in the Welsh village of Brynmawr where the hospitality of the people and their liking for Aussies and Kiwis was amazing.  They sang us Welsh songs and shouted us pints of beer.  In the middle of one Welsh song they came out with “Up the Wallabies” and we all finished up singing “Waltzing Matilda” and “The Maori Farewell’. The night with supper and breakfast cost 7/6d each.  

The pub in Brinmawr

We passed by Aberfan where the 240 children died in a landslide disaster that flattened the school.  Over the whole trip we got about 20 lifts in cars, trucks and even an ambulance.  The people were very friendly and quite interested in Aussie. 

Tomorrow I’m taking off again for a week in Scotland, mostly Glasgow and Edinburgh and hope to get a tour of a whisky distillery (free samples) as the Scotch in Scotland is dearer than in Australia. I’m off by myself this time for a change.  I should be more mobile and I have to be back in London by Saturday to meet one of the girls from the Fairsea who disembarked in Naples and has been in Europe (Michelle).

We are living very well and the financial position is fair.  I think I’ve put on about half a stone, my hair is long (I haven’t had a haircut since Wollongong, over three months ago) but everyone’s hair is long in Pommie land anyway.

You should see some of these clothes! Talk about being way out gear! We are very keen on the mini, mini skirts though.  They’re nearly up to the neck!

I have seen quite a lot of the sights of London, but there’s so much to see it should take ages.  Think I told you we visited St Clements (Oranges and Lemons) built 1066 but destroyed, all but walls and steeple in 1941 and rebuilt. Also went aboard the Cutty Sark – she could do 17 knots under 32,000 square feet of sail – that’s faster than the old Fairsea.  

Will, Keith and Phil in Greenwich in front of the Cutty Sark

I stood on the 0 degrees Meridian, one leg in east longitude and one foot in west longitude at the Greenwich Observatory. Also have visited Carnaby Street (way out clobber), Soho (sort of a Kings Cross) where the strippers take off the lot, one after another but with no finesse at all!  Portobello Road is interesting with all its street stalls selling all sorts of junk very cheaply. Antiques are also very moderately priced and you should see all these shops selling old uniforms.  It’s the new craze in MOD gear.  

Portobello Road

I have been to London Zoo.  Pretty fair but wouldn’t say it was any better than Taronga Park.  We found a wallaby but didn’t see one kangaroo!  London’s biggest building is the GPO tower – 36 storeys.  We kill that with Australia Square of 50 storeys.  Oh well, the Poms will find out one day what a great place “Down Under” is.  Meantime we are having a great time looking at their country but we don’t knock the place to them.  Well, I’ll send you a card from Scotland.  Write and let’s know how things are.  It’s good to get mail from home and hear all the news.

PS

Saw my first colour TV yesterday.  Only fair but slight improvement on black and white.

PPS

Snowed here at Hammersmith yesterday but only lightly.

E for Eating Garlic and Razorblades

lindamaycurry8 Comments
#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter E

While I was facing the stresses of a new job, John was still researching cars.  He liked the look of the Ford Focus but without the internet was not getting very far.  He visited two car yards in Chasetown without any luck.  We only had one more day before the rental car was to be returned to Birmingham airport.  He also made an appointment with Carol’s doctor so we could be accepted on his list of patients.

A week later I made an exhausted diary entry as I was too tired each night to do anything but fall asleep.  I noted the things I found to be different from my school in Australia.

Children bring a ‘kit’ to school for ‘games’ which includes ‘pumps’.  After they finish they remove their pumps which are covered in mud.  I must remember to take two pairs of shoes in future.  Children also have gym, which consists of setting up complicated and colourful apparatus and then rotating from one station to the next.

Some of the gym equipment. I have blocked the children’s faces but they would be in their mid twenties by now.

The first week was spent giving ‘Spellings’ every day.  These tests are marked by an assistant and are the same words tested in the SATS test in Year 6 along with Reading, Writing, Numeracy and Science.  My Australian accent was as strange to the childrens’ ears as their accent was to mine and some even tearfully told their parents they couldn’t understand the words the new teacher was saying in Spellings. Hmmm, now I have to develop a Midland’s accent.

If you want to use the computers for something which ties in with your other schoolwork you can’t because you have to teach what is in the school program.  I wanted to do some art related work but instead we had to do simulations, which consisted of clicking on musical instruments and hearing them play.

School dinners are served in the hall (after the gym equipment is put away).  Children go out to play, rugged up in their winter coats, and are then called in for dinner.  Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 go in last so often have not finished when the end of lunchtime comes.  As a result I have the class returning in dribs and drabs for about 15 minutes.

A typical school dinner

Reading this 17 years later makes it sound as though I was super critical of the school.  I actually thought it was very well run.  The children were well behaved and the teachers very supportive.  The strict adherence to curriculum was a by-product of a previous era of extreme freedom in which standards slipped considerably.  When my husband taught in London in the 1960s he used his NSW curriculum as there was no guidance on what to teach.

My greatest problem was the teaching of numeracy as I had to learn new ways to perform mathematical operations using number lines.  I decided to change my research topic to the teaching of Numeracy in Primary School.

Meanwhile John had secured his new pride and joy, a Ford Focus.  Over budget at £6,500 it was only twelve months old and had belonged to a government agency. We could go exploring each weekend to make up for the long days spent at school.

The new Ford Focus

Our visit to the doctor had unintended consequences.  All those people sneezing and coughing around me caused me to feel very ill by the end of the first week.  I had already picked up the local expression of ‘feeling poorly’ and I was.  A planned trip to Birmingham was delayed and instead we drove to Stafford, explored a ‘Tall House’ over 400 years old and had lunch at The Vine.  On Sunday we visited Uttoxeter where I would have been living if the second exchange had gone through. The town was large and historic but did not appear to be thriving. Some buildings were three or four hundred years old and seemed to be barely holding together. 

  • Lunch at The Vine
  • The “Tall House”

By Sunday night my throat was like razor blades but I hoped I would be able to teach the next day.  On Tuesday I felt so bad I asked the deputy if I could have Wednesday off to rest my voice and go to the doctor.  He arranged immediately for my class to be split so I could go home but that meant that guided reading couldn’t take place that afternoon.  For one of my fellow teachers guided reading was more sacred than Lichfield Cathedral so my feelings of guilt were substantial.

I was able to get in to see the doctor at 5.35 that afternoon.  He immediately wrote a script for antibiotics and suggested I rest for a few days.  However, after one day at home I felt I had to go back.  A week later the sore throat was as bad as ever but the doctor refused to give me any more antibiotics.  He told me to take a week off work but how could I do that? The following weekend we planned a visit to Stratford-on-Avon, staying in a youth hostel, but I couldn’t even summon enough energy to look inside Shakespeare’s birthplace. 

I didn’t get to look inside Shakespeare’s house. “Alas, the frailty is to blame” Twelfth Night
By Diliff – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22120641

Arriving early at the Youth Hostel we found the heating would not be turned on until 6 o’clock so even lying on the bed in the freezing cold was not an option.  Somehow I survived a miserable night in the bottom bunk of our cell like room.

YHA Stratford-upon-Avon Hostel -I’m sure its very nice in summer

As I had no medication John took me to the casualty department of our local hospital the next morning where I was given stronger antibiotics before driving home.  It was felt in England that the over prescription of antibiotics was rampant and was diluting their effectiveness.  I didn’t get tonsillitis very often but I knew what I needed when I did.  Strangely I haven’t had it in the sixteen years I have been back home in Australia.

One of the helpful suggestions given to me at school was to eat raw garlic.  It was thought this might help my throat.  I tried it and all I can say is don’t do it.  It made me feel so sick I almost forgot about my throat, and that is saying something.

Here is an extract of an email to a friend.  Yes, we finally got the internet up and running much to our delight.

Dianne, It’s the weekend!!! I had Monday and Tuesday off and struggled to school Wed Thurs Fri.  What a relief to stop.  I have never been in such bad health.  I like John’s suggestion of shipping me off to Samoa like R L Stevenson but I don’t want my grave there.  We had “loads’ of snow on Wednesday and the roads froze on Thurs so they were like skating rinks.  The schoolwork is building up.  Parent interviews are in a week and a half with inspection of books, report sized comments on Maths, English and Science and a Monday evening devoted to timetabling parent visits so they can see all their children’s teachers in close proximity.

(Because we divided the children into three groups for English and Mathematics we taught children from the other two classes as well as our own. As a result we had to timetable the parental visits so they could see all three teachers within a similar time frame.) 

Interviews are from 4 ’til 6 on Tuesday and 6 ’til 8 on Thursday.  The following day is pupil free with a week’s half term holiday after that.  I’ll need it.  NSW primary teachers don’t know how good they’ve got it.  

Maybe current NSW teachers will dispute my comment but in 2004 the amount of time spent by teachers at school in England far exceeded that of NSW teachers (based purely on anecdotal evidence). It was more common for teachers in Australia to leave school early and take work home. After all you can’t get much done in a baking hot demountable. You could actually reduce your heating bill by staying at school in England.

C for Close Your Eyes and Think of England

lindamaycurry21 Comments
#AtoZChallenge 2021 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge letter C

Arrival at Heathrow, passing through customs and retrieving our luggage all went smoothly, unlike my first visit to London in 1998, but that’s another story.  The Heathrow Travel Inn was very new, comfortable and spacious.  The next morning we left the warmth of the hotel for a walk around the block.  The cold hit my face like a sledgehammer. I had sudden misgivings.  Could I survive in this climate?  How long until Spring?

A taxi took us to the house my daughter was sharing with six others.  They called themselves Seven Little Australians and seemed oblivious of the freezing temperatures. John had lived in London for three years in the “Swinging ‘60s” so was keen to revisit old haunts.  First on the list was “The Dove” so we bought a daily transport ticket and took two tubes to Hammersmith.  The walk alongside the Thames was interesting as it was low tide and canal boats sat on the dry. We warmed ourselves by the roaring coal fire in the The Dove and ate potatoes topped with beans and cheese, tuna and onions. We noticed one of the flatmates seemed particularly interested in our daughter.

John reminiscing about his youth

We bought cards for our mobile phones, found a place to sleep in Carina’s house in Shepherd’s Bush, and prepared to go out for dinner.  Carina had booked a table at the Blue Elephant which was an upmarket Thai restaurant. We had to catch three trains to get to Fulham.  The Blue Elephant lived up to its reputation.  We were greeted by smiling waitresses and met with a blast of hot, humid air which felt as if it was blowing off the Andaman Sea.  All I can say is the restaurant was completely over the top with wooden bridges crossing running streams filled with fish and floating baskets of flowers.  John had been looking a bit peaky but this was the last straw.  After we ordered a simple soup for him, he decided to go for a walk outside in the cold and possibly go home.  Carina ordered us two dishes with steamed rice, accompanied by jasmine tea.  The waitress suggested we choose something less spicy to go with the order or maybe we would like less chilli in our dishes but I confidently replied they would be fine. I found out the meaning of the elephants beside each dish on the menu.  Two elephants meant very, very hot.  We were unable to finish the meal.  Instead we had fruit and icecream to put out the fire and asked for containers to take away what we could not eat.  The bill arrived for £58  which put me into a state of shock.

I don’t want to labour the point but we were visiting Britain at a time when the Australian dollar equalled 42p or as low as 38p after actually changing money.  That meant that every British pound equalled more than AUD $2.60.  Our dinner at the Blue Elephant cost us over AUD $150 . I was still receiving my salary from the NSW Education Department so we had decided to be very careful when eating out so we could save money for travelling.  Day 1 we had blown the budget and the whole thing was a bit of a disaster.  John was still wandering the local streets so we found him and headed back to Shepherd’s Bush on the tube, carrying our containers of fiery curry.

Carina left early next morning for Edinburgh and Hogmanay with two flatmates, including the interested one.  Although we promised to wait for the plumber to fix the hot water in the downstair’s bathroom, he didn’t arrive by 10.00 am so we had to shut the front door and take a taxi to the car hire place at Park Royal.  The taxi driver was from Trinidad and John found out his life history as we drove through London.  He had nine children, all living in Trinidad.  He was going back for a holiday for the first time in 22 years.

Our first rental car

John was pleased with the car as we were upgraded to a Mazda 6.  It had digital controls for climate air, radio etc.  How good was the feeling as we left London, travelling along the M1 to the Midlands.  We stopped at an old pub for lunch but in England things are not always what they seem.  It was owned by a food chain called Harvester, and lacked the character I was anticipating in an old English pub..

Our lunch stop on the way to Staffordshire

We pulled up outside our home for the next twelve months.  Carol was there to welcome us and introduced us to M, another teacher at the school, who offered to drive me there for the first few days.  (As it turned out she drove me all year). Friends of ours had arranged for beer and wine to be in the fridge and Carol had also left food.  We drank the wine and ate the rest of the curry with copious quantities of rice. After working out how to operate the TV we both fell asleep in front of it.  Somehow we climbed the stairs to the bedroom and had no trouble falling asleep a second time.

The view from our new home

There is nothing more frustrating than standing in a shower when the water runs cold.  Especially in the middle of winter. It wasn’t until later I discovered I had to pull a cord hanging from the ceiling to activate the heat. 

My diary reflects my difficulties.

John is sleeping and I am having a very frustrating time because I can’t get anything to work. First of all, the Central Heating won’t come on. I tried reprogramming it to new times and now the downstair’s heaters won’t even warm up.  It’s not cold in the house as we have the gas fire but it is annoying that I have done something to mess up the system.  I then tried to connect to the internet but I can’t find a plug in the wall like at home.  The phone cable just disappears through a hole in the floor.  I decided to watch TV as I was not getting anywhere but I can’t even turn that on.  There are two remotes and neither will work.  John had it on earlier so why won’t it work!!!

On New Year’s Eve Carol arrived to take me for a school visit to Castle Bridge*. It was unlike its grand name and consisted of a long, flat roofed building with wings at either end built in the unexciting architectural style of the middle 20th Century. I met the school principal who took me on a tour of the school, ending up in my new classroom where Carol explained her program.  It was a lot to take in and I was glad to get home and have some lunch.

I had success with the washing machine and although the weather was not suitable for outdoor drying I was pleased to see Carol had a Hill’s Hoist in her back garden.  In this wet, chilly weather I used a clothes horse in the study. The view from upstairs was across a decidedly bleak graveyard but at least the neighbours would be quiet.

The graveyard behind our home

Although we may have opted for New Year at home we were invited to a party.  It was at the home of Carol’s parents.  At 7.45pm Carol came by and drove us to her parent’s house which is near the school.  I despaired of ever finding my way there as a new tollway had split the area in two and made what was a simple journey into a complicated one.  We were welcomed by Carol’s parents and were to find them supportive and friendly for the year of our stay.  They were full of advice on where to go and what to do. Alan loaned me a book on walking around Staffordshire but I looked out the conservatory window and decided to wait until the weather improved.  The food was excellent.  John and I concentrated on the large Atlantic salmon and salads as we had been deprived of greens the last few days.

There were a number of other guests, including family and friends.  After the meal we played a traditional English game called bar skittles made by Jaques of London.

The Oldest Sports and Games Manufacturer in the World
Passed down from father to son for six generations, Jaques have been responsible for inventing many well known games, such as Croquet, Ping Pong, Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Tiddledy Winks, The Staunton Chess Set, Happy Families, Snap and many more.

Carol had ordered a taxi to take us back to Chasetown.  It would normally have been ten pounds but the driver informed us New Year’s Eve was double price. Maybe, I decided, we should stop worrying about money and just chill.

*not the school’s real name